Spring-holler eob window-curtains



B. BRAY. HANGING AND BALANCING WINDOW CURTAINS.

No. 11,638. Patented Sept. 5, 1854.

BENJAMIN BRAY, OF SALEM,

MASSACHUSETTS.

SPRING-ROLLER FOR WINDOW-CURTAINS, &o.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 11,688, dated September 5, 1854.

To all whom 2'25 may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN Bear, of Salem, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fixtures for Hanging and Balancing HouseCurtains, Maps, Drawings, &c.; and I hereby declare the following to a be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a view of the curtain partially wound upon its roller. Fig. 52, a section through the same showing the weighted roller at the bottom. Figs. 3 and 4 are views of the sheet metal roller upon which the curtain is wound. Fig. 5, the rod upon which the springs are coiled. Figs. 6, 7 and 8 and 9, details which will be hereafter referred to.

Similar letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

The nature of my invention consists in providing the tubular or hollow curtain roller with a long spiral spring within it, when said spring is used for the purpose, not merely of drawing up the curtain by its recoil, as that is not new, but of balancing it in any position in which it may be placed.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my improvements, I will proceed to describe their construction and operation.

Curtains particularly for carriages have been hung with spiral springs of sufficient strength to wind the entire curtain upon its shaft, a pawl and ratchet being made use of to retain the curtain in any desired position. To raise the curtain, the pawl was released from the ratchet, and the curtain was suddenly jerked up, being furthermore guided in its ascent by cords each side of it which passed through rings or eyes in its bottom bar. This was liable to many objections, among others the rapid motion of the spring soon deranged the operation of the parts which were not again easily put in order, while there was no means known by which the curtain could be held in any position in which it was placed without the use of a ratchet and pawl or of extra cords weights and pulleys at the side of the window.

In Fig. 5 are shown two of my springs applied to a window curtain.

A, A, are the springs, B a block which is secured to the interior of the metallic roller C by screws a.

B are blocks similarly secured to the ex tremities of the curtain roller by screws a as seen in Figs. 3 and 4:. i

D is the rod which in this case is made in two pieces to accommodate the two springs and which revolves in the blocks B, B.

One end of each of the springs is attached to the block B at b and the other end to the shafts or rods D at c. The pivots E E are secured to the rods D by screws or in any other suitable manner, and have square bearings at their outward ends which enter similarly shaped sockets d at the top of the window jambs, by which means the rod D is prevented from turning when the curtain is in place. The springs are made of brass or other suitable wire having the requisite degree of elasticity. The number of springs used and the size of the wire of which they are constructed vary according to the width and weight of the curtain to which they are to be attached, and must also be of suflicient length to give the requisite number of turns. For a curtain 4: feet wide and 12 feet long two springs are required which are made of No. 18 brass spring wire wound upon a inch rod. Such a spring will require 80 to 100 feet of wire and will contain 350 coils or thereabouts.

F is a weighted bar hung to the bottom of the curtain, which may be replaced if desired by a weighted tassel, the object of which will now be explained. So great is the disparity between the weight of a curtain when down and when nearly wound up on its roller, that it would be impossible to balance it with a spiral spring in these two posit-ions; for if the spring were sufliciently stiff to sustain the curtain when only one foot of its length were unwound, the same spring would be altogether insufficient to sustain the curtain when six or eight feet of it were unwound, as the weight upon the spring would be six or eight times as great in the latter case as in the former. To remedy this inconvenience I have attached to the bottom of the curtain a weighted bar F, Fig. 2, the effect of which is to equalize or nearly equalize the weight of the curtain whether it be up or down, so that the differtion of this part of my invention is as follows.

The spring constructed as above is placed upon the rod D as seen in Fig. 5 one end being fastened to the block B at b and the other to the rod D at the point 0. The spring being sufiiciently distended to prevent the interference of its coils with each other, the rod and springs as seen in Fig. 5 are then slipped into the tin roller C Figs. 3, 4, and 7 to which the blocks B, B are secured by the screws a a as before mentioned. The interior rod D is now held stationary by placing the ends of its gudgeons in the square sockets d, and the spring is wound entirely up by turning the exterior roller C. In a spring of the size above described about 90 turns more or less of the exterior cylinder will be required to accomplish this.

G, Fig. 4, is a pin'which passes through the hole 6 of the cylinder and through the block B into the hole f in the gudgeon E after the spring is wound up and thus the whole is locked together for transportation or to enable the curtain to be attached to the roller which is effected in the following manner.

g is a longitudinal depression or groove in the surface of the exterior roller C which is covered for its entire length or at certain intervals with metallic straps or cylinders H, H, having narrow slots himmediately over the groove z'is a wire which is surrounded by and secured to the upper end of the curtain K as seen enlarged at Fig. 9. This wire is then slipped into the groove g from one end, the cloth being allowed to pass through the slot h which is sufliciently small to retain the .wire 2' as seen in Fig. 7.

H, Figs. 3, 4; and 6, is a short metallic cylinder which may be slidden upon the cylinder C and secured in the desired position by the screw Z, which is passed through one or other of the holes m and the roller is thus, lengthened or shortened to suit windows of different widths, heretofore it has been necessary to have rollers of every variety of length required for windows of different widths.

In order to brin the bearings E into a position correspondingto the length of the when said springisused forthe purpose,

not merely'of drawing up. the curtain by its recoil, as that is not new, but of balancing it in any positionin which it may be placed, substantially as herein described.

BENJ. BRAY.

' Witnesses OANSTEN BURMS, 1 SAM. COOPER. 

